Belarus’ principal opposition chief has denounced her trial in absentia as a farce throughout an look on the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya was the primary challenger within the August 2020 election that prolonged President Alexander Lukashenko’s rule and was rejected by the Belarusian opposition and the West as a sham.

Ms Tsikhanouskaya, who left the ex-Soviet nation shortly after the vote underneath stress from authorities, is being tried in absentia together with 4 different main opposition figures.

She is dealing with costs of excessive treason, conspiracy to grab energy and undermining nationwide safety and will withstand 20 years in jail if convicted.

Ms Tsikhanouskaya mentioned that she realized from media experiences in regards to the trial, which is being held behind closed doorways, including that she was unable to succeed in her lawyer appointed by the Belarusian authorities.

“It looks like farce,” Ms Tsikhanouskaya advised The Associated Press in an interview in Davos, the place she is attending the worldwide financial discussion board. “I will be sentenced to years and years. The judge will give me so many years as he is ordered to do.”

In December 2021, Ms Tsikhanouskaya’s husband Siarhei Tsikhanouski was convicted and sentenced to 18 years in jail on costs of organising mass unrest and inciting hatred, which he rejected. On Monday, the authorities levelled new accusations towards him.

“The lawyer visits him once a week just to check if he’s at least alive, because the conditions in prisons are awful,” Ms Tsikhanouskaya advised the AP. “He was put very often in punishment cells and when you are in prison, you do not have rights at all.”

Her husband, a preferred video blogger and activist, deliberate to problem Mr Lukashenko within the August 2020 vote however was arrested in May 2020, two days after he declared his candidacy. Ms Tsikhanouskaya, a former English instructor, ran in his place.

Ms Tsikhanouskaya and different opposition activists rejected the official outcomes that handed Mr Lukashenko a sixth time period in workplace as fraudulent. The vote triggered a months-long wave of unprecedented mass protests, the most important of which noticed about 200,000 individuals taking to the streets of the Belarusian capital, Minsk.

Mr Lukashenko’s authorities responded with a violent crackdown on demonstrations, arresting greater than 35,000 and beating 1000’s.

The authorities have continued their repression, and 1,438 individuals in Belarus are at the moment in prisons on politically motivated costs, in accordance with human rights teams.

Ms Tsikhanouskaya urged the West to return out with a transparent technique on Belarus and enhance assist for the nation’s opposition.

She emphasised that backing the opposition is especially vital as Russia used Belarus’ territory to invade Ukraine on February 24 and continues to station its troops and weapons on Belarusian territory.

Ms Tsikhanouskaya famous that opposition activists in Belarus assist collect details about Russian troops actions within the nation, including that “we deliver this information to Ukraine”.

“I don’t want the world to overlook Belarus, to explain once again why Belarus is important, that without a safe, free, democratic Belarus, there will not be stable peace in the region,” Ms Tsikhanouskaya mentioned.